The Second Afghan War medal to Colour-Sergeant John Yule, 72nd (Seaforth) Highlanders, mentioned in Lord Roberts’ despatch for being ‘first man up’ in the assault on the Takht-i-Shah, when he captured two enemy standards, but was sadly killed in action the following day in the attack on ‘Conical Hill’

Afghanistan 1878-80, 2 clasps, Charasia, Kabul (1400 Cr. Sgt. J. Yule, 72nd Highrs.) hairline scratch in obverse field, otherwise brilliant extremely fine £2,600-£3,000

Brian Ritchie Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, September 2004.

Following the massacre of the British embassy at Kabul in September 1879, the 72nd Highlanders were ordered to form part of the brigade under Brigadier-General T. D. Baker in the Kurram Division of the Kabul Field Force. On 6 October they were employed in the action at Charasia, as one of the two leading battalions in Baker’s outflanking movement, which contributed to the rout of the army of Kabul and the capture of nearly all its guns.

Roberts entered Kabul on the 10th and the force prepared to go into winter quarters, but in the second week of December a local uprising took place under Mahomed Jan, who having welded together a strong and dangerous force of 45,000 men, began to occupy the surrounding heights. On the morning of the 13th, a force under Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Money, consisting of the 72nd Highlanders, 3rd Sikhs and 5th Gurkhas, made a second attempt to assault the ‘craggy eminence’ atop the Takht-i-Shah, in conjunction with a force under Baker co-operating from the Beni Hissar side.

The assault on the Takht-i-Shah could clearly be seen by General Roberts in the Sherpur Cantonment who wrote: ‘The slopes leading up to it were covered with huge masses of jagged rock, intersected by perpendicular cliffs, and its natural great strength was increased by breastworks, and stockades thrown up at different points. A brilliant charge by the combined troops now took place, the two Highland corps [72nd and 92nd] vying with each other for the honour of reaching the summit first. It fell to the 72nd, Colour Sergeant Yule of that regiment being the foremost man on the top. The enemy made a most determined stand, and it was only after a severe struggle and heavy loss that they were driven off the heights’.

Besides being the first man on the summit, Yule also captured two Afghan standards, and received a mention in Roberts’ despatches (London Gazette 4 May 1880):

‘Colour-Sergeant John Yule, 72nd Highlanders, was the first man up, and captured two standards. This gallant non-commissioned officer was, I regret to say, killed on the following day.’

On the 14th, Yule was assigned to take part in the seizure and retention of Conical Hill during Baker’s storming of the Asmai Heights, to the east of Kabul. The hill was assaulted by sixty-four men of the 72nd, under Captain Nathaniel Spens, together with the Guides Infantry, all under Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. J. Clarke, and was successfully held despite repeated attempts to regain it by the Afghans. At length the enemy reassembled and, reinforced, came on in great numbers. Spens, accompanied by Colour-Sergeant Yule, volunteered to meet them at the head of a charge made by the Guides, and dashing headlong into the mass of the enemy, killed the front man before being cut down himself. Colour-Sergeant Yule was himself killed by a gunshot wound to the pelvis.

John Yule had enlisted in the Aberdeen District as a Private with H.M. 72nd Highlanders on 18 May 1868, aged 21 years.